Will You Fill Out This Survey About Honesty in Advertising?

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Today’s post is a little off the beaten path, but it’s about something important.

The Canadian government has released a survey about self-care products and what kinds of restrictions you would like to see them put on how stuff like supplements, skin care products, and over-the-counter remedies for diseases like the common cold are advertised to the public.

They are currently thinking about changing the rules so that products are no longer allowed to make health claims that are not supported by real scientific research. Products that had a higher risk of harming people would be subject to a more strict set of rules. Other stuff that was less dangerous or that didn’t claim to improve your health would be given more leeway. The link that I shared above included several examples of this.

You do not have to be Canadian in order to fill this survey out. It is open to anyone who is willing to thoughtfully answer a few questions. The survey is open until October 24. It took me about 10 minutes to fill out, but I typed a lot.

Why does this all matter to me? Because I was once duped.

Years ago I bought a bottle of cough syrup on a day when I had a bad cold and felt absolutely miserable. It wasn’t until I’d taken several doses of that medicine that I read all of the fine print on it and realized that I’d accidentally picked up a homeopathic treatment. While the effectiveness of regular cough syrup is still up for debate, I never would have bought something that didn’t have any actual medicine in it at all.

Consumers deserve better than this. I hope you agree and that you’ll fill out the survey sometime in the next month.